Avatar's Reversal of Fortune
With the dazzling 3D-vortex of colours, actions and emotions, James Cameron's Avatar seems to have given everyone something to rave about.
But let's get it straight — Avatar is a downright misnomer for this latest new blockbuster.
No, not because, sadly for Hare Krishna moviegoers, the film's got nothing to do with Hinduism except its Sanskrit name. And some Hindu activists who habitually frisk all new releases for concealed sacrileges also needn't worry — there are none in Avatar, or at least not more that in those little digital icons they hide themselves behind on their own e-chats.
It's because the movie reverses the very concept that the term "avatar" is based on.
Leave aside the fact that Hindu theology reserves the use of "avatar", which in Sanskrit literally means "descent", almost exclusively for appearances of Vishnu on Earth. The key point here is that an avatar always descends from a higher realm into the lower, restores prosperity, wisdom, and happiness — and moves on unchanged after the mission is accomplished.
However, the "avatar" Jake Sully — and we the viewers along with him — shortly after his descent into the world of Na'vis sees the "higher" realm of earthlings rapidly grow pallid and repulsive in comparison to the pristine world of supposed savages. The "civilised humans" turn out as primitive, jaded and increasingly greedy, cynical, and brutal — traits only amplified by their machinery — while the "monkey aliens" emerge as noble, kind, wise, sensitive, and humane.
We, along with the "Avatara" hero, are now faced with an uncomfortable yet irresistible choice between the two races and the two worldviews. And invariably, along with him we cannot help but lean toward the far more civilised insides within the long-tailed, blue-skinned, and technologically infantile exterior.
So much for a descending "avatar". Jake soon admits to himself in his videolog: "I realised that I had it backwards, I wasn't sure what was the dream and what was real." Having regained through the avatar body not just his legs, but his dignity, his freedom, and his brethren whose love and trust he struggles to earn, the rescuer becomes the rescued, the benefactor becomes the benefitted. The "avatar" becomes . . . well . . . a refugee among the aborigines so content inwardly that they wouldn't trade their tree for whatever the savvy "sky people" gods have to offer! Contrary to The Matrix's Neo, Jake plugs into a supposedly illusory world to discover it to be much more tangible, wholesome and true than his own — and wants to stay in.
This makes us ask the question: Why? And what on Earth (or on Pandora) do "culture", "civilisation", and "human" stand for?
Not succumbing to the stock trifle of sci-fi genre, James Cameron makes this question the fourth dimension of his movie — and answers it most convincingly: It's the qualities of kindness, gratitude, regard for the elderly, self-sacrifice, respect for all life and ultimately humble dependence on a higher intelligence behind nature that qualify one as cultured, civilised, and human.
The other alternative is summed up by Jake Sully: "This is how it's done. When people are sitting on something that you want, you make them your enemy so that you can drive them out." And "They have already killed their mother". Here you have it, the savage — give or take his spaceship, touch-screen and a rifle.
And getting back to the Hindu theology, Bhagavad-gita (16.1-4) echoes this distinction: "Fearlessness; cultivation of wisdom; charity; self-control; austerity; simplicity; refrain from unnecessary violence; truthfulness; freedom from hatred; renunciation; tranquility; aversion to fault-finding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigour; forgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for honour - these are qualities befitting real civilised humans.
"Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance are qualities of barbarians."
In order to descend — that is, to be an avatar — one first ought to be above. Unfortunately for our civilisation, epitomised by the human conquistadors on Pandora, from the place where we are happily getting ourselves into, we can only climb.
Maxim Osipov is a student of Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and a follower of the Hare Krishna movement since 1991. Mukunda Goswami contributed to this article" at the end.
Article was also published in Hindustan Times of December 27, 2009
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Reader Comments:
I believe this movie became
I believe this movie became so popular because it awoke this deep thirst for Truth in all of us, just like listening to the great stories of the Puranic avatars and their feats. It would really be very interesting to read more about the parallels between this story and the Puranas. Besides what has already been mentioned in other comments (the very name of the movie, the bluish complexion, the tilaka, the all-pervading Mother deity), I can also point to the Vedic concept that a person is not his body (the characters in the movie can reincarnate from one body into another) and the concept of Taruk Makto, the rider of the Taruk, which uncannily reminds me of the avatar of Lord Visnu riding Garuda. Can you imagine how great it would look if the Puranic stories could be made into such great movies like Avatar, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings!
Is Avatar an apt term here?
Is Avatar an apt term here?
The reviewer in his opinion piece himself suggests that - An Avatar always descends from a higher realm into the lower, restores prosperity, wisdom, and happiness — and moves on unchanged after the mission is accomplished.
The above opinion piece says Jake Sully was not a true Avatar because he did not descend from a higher realm into a lower one.
However, the question I pose is, even though he did not "descend" from a higher realm, did Jake Sully, restore prosperity, wisdom, and happiness in the realm that he came to from the outer "sky people"? My answer to this question is Yes. In this sense, I think James Cameron may have "accidentally" got the name of his movie right.
Although it is true that the "Sky people" were arrogant and violent as well as decitful.....an Avatar was born amongst them to rescue the downtrodden.........Was Jake Sully's new form therefore aptly referred to as Avatar? Avatar's have descended to the earth, in periods of history, when us mortals in the human have gone overboard with arrogance, violence, and terror.
I would be interested in other points of view.
Hare Krishna.
The movie depicts a deity
The movie depicts a deity who is connected with, all powerful, and all pervading, and in control of the life on Pandora. The mythological savior of Pandora (Jason) incarnates from the realm of the "sky people" into a body of the residents of Pandora in order to save them. At one point he is shown with Vaishnava tilak. While many devotees see Avatar as representing the opposite of the true meaning of the word avatar, if you see the movie you can see a dual purpose to James Cameron's choice of calling it Avatar. I mean, really, a blue skinned mythological savior figure wearing Vaishnava tilak, who incarnates in a mythological savior role in a body suitable to survive on the planet -- clearly he had more in mind than the modern computer related use of the word avatar than what is assumed by the above reviewer.
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